"If you love wealth more than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the
animating contest of freedom, depart from us in peace. We ask not your counsel
nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains rest
lightly upon you and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen."
Samuel Adams, (1722-1803)

Wednesday, March 16, 2016

A Fox News legal analyst described Supreme Court nominee as a
conservative — even as he urged Republicans to block his confirmation
and accused President Barack Obama of politicizing the process.Andrew Napolitano, the conservative network’s senior legal analyst, described
appeals court judge Merrick Garland as “the consummate Washington,
D.C., insider who has worked for both Republicans and Democrats.”“Judge Garland is the most conservative nominee by a Democratic president in the modern era,” Napolitano said.He said Garland’s 19-year track record as a federal prosecutor during
President George H.W. Bush’s administration and then as an appellate
court judge could offer plenty of ammunition for GOP senators to keep
him off the Supreme Court.However, he said Garland does not share the same legal philosophy as
previous Obama nominees Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, who now serve
on the court.“He does not think about the law the way Barack Obama does, so Barack
Obama does not get the opportunity to appoint Antonin Scalia’s opposite
member,” Napolitano said. “If he does not get on the court, we’re still
at a stalemate — so in my view, this is a lose-lose for the president.”He said Obama’s choice was more intended to “pry loose Republicans
who actually like Judge Garland and agree with him, than the president
is interested in his own philosophical legacy on the court.”Which, in Napolitano’s view, is a bad thing.“The president is more interested in the politics of the process,” he complained.Napolitano described Garland’s voting record as “center-right” in his
tenure on the appeals court, saying he ruled “almost always on the side
of the government — not what you would expect from a Democrat.”Even so, Napolitano rejected any argument that the U.S. Senate had a
constitutional duty to hold hearings or vote on Obama’s nominee.“The law in the Constitution is, the Senate makes its own rules at
its own pace, (and) it cannot be told what to do by the president,”
Napolitano said.He predicted the Senate would “stand firm” and oppose Obama’s nominee
and wait until after a new president was elected to consider a Supreme
Court nominee.“They have the constitutional and legal right do so,” Napolitano said.Napolitano, a former New Jersey Superior Court Judge, may have a self
interest in seeing the process stalled until after the possible
election of Donald Trump as president.Roger Stone, a conservative political consultant and casino lobbyist
recently banned from CNN over his sexist and racist tweets, said earlier
this month that Napolitano was “probably Trump’s number one pick for
the U.S. Supreme Court.”

Thursday, March 03, 2016

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Sixty Republican foreign policy veterans released a letter
on Wednesday pledging to oppose Donald Trump and saying his proposals
would undermine U.S. security, in the latest sign of fissures between
the Republican presidential front-runner and the party establishment.

"Mr. Trump’s own statements lead us to conclude that as
president, he would use the authority of his office to act in ways that
make America less safe, and which would diminish our standing in the
world," the letter says. "Furthermore, his expansive
view of how presidential power should be wielded against his detractors
poses a distinct threat to civil liberty in the United States," it
says. The signatories include Robert Zoellick, a
former World Bank president and deputy secretary of state; former U.S.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff; and Dov Zakheim, a top
Pentagon official under President George W. Bush.
They represent both centrist Republican foreign policy circles and
neoconservatives who favor a robust U.S. international role and wielded
clout during Bush's 2000-2008 tenure. Billionaire
businessman Trump won the largest number of state nominating contests on
Tuesday, intensifying moves by the party's establishment wing to derail
his path to the nomination. Bryan McGrath, a
retired U.S. Navy officer and adviser to Mitt Romney’s unsuccessful 2012
presidential campaign who helped organize the effort, called the
signatories "the right set of people". He said that at least two people
declined to sign the letter, citing concerns it would only fuel Trump's
campaign theme of being an anti-Washington candidate opposed by the
establishment. Eliot Cohen, who served as counselor
to former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, also helped spearhead
the letter, several people familiar with the effort said. Cohen would
not comment. Trump's campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The signatories did not include several high-profile
former officials such as Rice, Bush national security advisor Stephen
Hadley and former Secretary of State Colin Powell. It was not known if
they had been asked to sign. The letter, which was
posted on a blog site called War on the Rocks, rejects numerous Trump
foreign policy statements, including his anti-Muslim comments; his
demand that Mexico fund a wall to control illegal immigration across the
U.S. border; and his insistence that Japan pay much more for U.S.
security assistance. "As committed and loyal
Republicans, we are unable to support a Party ticket with Mr. Trump at
its head," the letter states. "We commit ourselves to working
energetically to prevent the election of someone so utterly unfitted to
the office." The War on the Rocks blog calls itself a
platform for former diplomats, military and intelligence officers and
scholars to comment on global affairs "through a realist lens." AMMUNITION FOR TRUMP?
Trump has alarmed mainstream Republican foreign policy and
economic thinkers with comments vowing to tear up international trade
deals. Many fear a Trump presidency would severely strain ties with
allies, and are concerned about his stated willingness to work more
closely with authoritarian Russian President Vladimir Putin. Trump also has criticized the Republican party for its backing of Bush's 2003 Iraq invasion.
"I would sooner work for (North Korean dictator) Kim Jong
Un than for Donald Trump. I think Donald Trump is objectively more
dangerous than Kim Jong Un and not as stable," said Max Boot, who was a
foreign policy adviser to Mitt Romney's 2012 campaign and supported the
Iraq invasion. Boot is among the letter's signers,
who also include David Shedd, who was acting director of the Pentagon's
Defense Intelligence Agency. Kurt Volker, who was a
permanent representative to NATO under Bush, said he did not sign the
letter out of concern it could end up backfiring.
"My concern is that it’s not smart for the intelligentsia – the national
security intelligentsia – to come out and bash Trump, the candidate,
partly, he would use that as a tool, saying: ‘Here’s the establishment.
More of the same. They’re afraid of me. I can do better.’ He would
actually use it as a bragging right." Volker said he
had no intention of working for Trump. But he also cautioned he wanted
to be free to offer his advice to any future president, and that such a
letter could prompt Trump to hold a grudge against signatories.
Several others who declined to sign, and asked not to be
identified, said they did so because they feared such an effort could
help Democrat Hillary Clinton win the presidency. Trump's campaign has yet to release a full list of his foreign policy and national security advisers.
Those Trump has spoken with on foreign policy include a
retired U.S. general and intelligence official, Michael Flynn, who
favors closer ties with Russia. Flynn has declined to comment on whether
he is advising Trump.

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who won popularity for his
handling of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, has said he has been having
regular talks with Trump, but not in a formal role.

(Additional reporting by Phil Stewart; Editing by David Rohde and Stuart Grudgings.)